With big-name options limited, Urijah Faber unsure who next UFC opponent may be

Worried wouldn’t be the right word. But Faber (27-6 MMA, 3-2 UFC) definitely is pretty uncertain what direction the UFC is going to take him in next after his dominant first-round submission win over Ivan Menjivar (25-10 MMA, 4-2 UFC) this past Saturday at UFC 157.

Of the fighters in the UFC’s bantamweight division who aren’t already booked, coming off losses or have already lost to Faber that are out there for him. The ones who are, the names don’t necessarily jump right out to him.

“It’s kind of a shame there aren’t some bigger names in the division right now,” Faber on Tuesday told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). “Who are the big names at 135 right now? It’s probably me and Ronda Rousey, and Dominick Cruz is out on injury. Those are the most notable fighters at the lighter weights right now, as far as popularity goes.”

And it’s not that Faber is demanding a giant name, and it’s not that he’s going to turn down a fight that’s put in front of him if the name across from his isn’t big enough.

“I don’t care (who I fight), to be honest,” he said. “This is the fight game, where you want to fight big names and have big fights. It’s kind of disheartening to know that those (big names) aren’t really out there for me. But what can you do?

“… I’m not really a guy that’s ever turned down a fight. I’ve fought everybody they’ve put in front of me. I just roll with the punches and fight whoever. These guys know what they’re doing.”

Faber was coming off a loss in an interim bantamweight title fight against Renan Barao this past July, and Menjivar had won four of his past five. So getting back in the win column was crucial for him. And he did so impressively.

In fact, when Faber isn’t in title fights, he’s won six in a row – five by submission. It’s those title fights that have tripped him up, both at featherweight in the WEC and at bantamweight now, as well.

“I was going for the finish in that fight, and the submission was what I predicted because Menjivar’s not afraid to go to the ground,” Faber said. “He’s not afraid to grapple or go anywhere in a fight. That plays to my advantage. The last fight against Barao, he did a really good job of slowing the fight down and making sure there were no scrambles and stuff like that. But I know Menjivar was open to playing everywhere, so I knew I’d probably submit him. I’ve finished guys that aren’t usually finishable.”

Menjivar hadn’t been submitted in roughly 11 years. Faber was the first to submit Brian Bowles. The first to submit Takeya Mizugaki. The first to submit Raphael Assuncao. Get the picture?

But when Team Alpha Male is brought up, it’s not necessarily thought of as some school of jiu-jitsu wizardry. So are other fighters not taking Alpha Male fighters’ ground games seriously enough?

“I think people do take us seriously when it comes to that, but the problem is we’re good at the whole MMA game,” he said. “Joseph (Benavidez), in particular – his kickboxing ‘s awesome. I’ve got good hands, and a lot of my submissions have come at the end of a big punch or knee. We’re mixed martial artists, and you don’t always have a choice. We know in our room how good we are because we know our team and then we go to other guys’ gyms and stuff like that. There’s a false sense of security out there sometimes, I think.”

False sense of security from an opponent or not, Faber’s just looking for who’s going to be next.

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